Omega Extracts – Things to Watch Out For

Omega offer an Archive service where for the princely sum of 120 Swiss Francs they will issue a sheet of paper showing the date of release of a watch from the factory, a so called “Extract of the Archives”.

Over the years this service has changed, and in fact there is evidence to suggest some early certificates were based not on archive information but on owners providing case references along with the movement number. The Archive, when faced with no internal information, would take the owners word on trust. There is anecdotal evidence this practice continued up to about 2010 – but I do not know for sure.

What I do know is that this extract was issued in 2011, and is, as you can see, pretty useless giving only the release date, country and the serial.

No case reference:

A 2998 with an extract issued in 2011. The reference is not mentioned and so does not confirm this movement left in this case reference.

This is because the Archive does not have all the records, especially for the 2998’s and some of the other early 321’s. These watches, as stated on the paperwork above, were in fact assembled at Lemania under license, not by Omega, so they do not have all the build records or factory data at the moment. I am told that they are making progress in reacquiring those records, but at the moment if you ask for one and they cannot confirm the case reference from the movement number, you get your money back.

Here is a more useful one, issued in 2013:

Issued in 2013, this extract confirms the case reference and the movement, as well as the country of destination, leading to suggest the dial might be plausible.

So can we trust an Extract?

If issued pre 2010, then I do not.

If issued shortly after, the information may be so sparse as to be no help.

Current extracts, and those issued after 2012 I do trust

Extracts do not always mention special dials, eg “racing” dials or Blue sunburst dials, nor special hands. Of course these may have been fitted after delivery.